The present invention relates to amphibious vehicles, an in particular to a type of amphibious vehicle employing parallel endless pontoon assemblies which support the vehicle over both land and water.
The primary problem with amphibious vehicles known in the art is that they are usually an uneasy compromise between land operation and water operation. For example, some amphibious vehicles utilize large buoyant tires which have a plurality of small fins on their surface, and the tires are used to propel the body over both land and water. However, the finned surface of the tires interferes with operation of the vehicle over hard or paved surfaces, and provides only minimal propulsion over water, resulting in a vehicle which is inefficient over both land and water. Another type of vehicle is somewhat similar to the standard automobile but the lower portion of the body is sealed to provide a buoyant hull. The vehicle has standard tires for land propulsion and is provided with a propeller for water propulsion. The vehicle operates much like a standard automobile over land, but in water the exposed tires cause excessive drag and the vehicle is thus inefficient in water. No amphibious vehicle has yet been developed which is efficient over both land and water. As a result, available amphibious vehicles have little practice utility and are used primarily as recreational vehicles for their novelty value. Such vehicles or parts thereof are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,070; 114,832; 328,559; 883,018; 917,351; 953,165; 1,749,276; 1,913,605; and 1,928,511.